Chapter 65: Unexpected Discovery
The early spring breeze was still slightly chilly. Outside the long pavilion on the outskirts of Xianyang, several carriages were parked on the roadside.
Several people in the pavilion raised their glasses and chatted, expressing their farewell wishes.
"Fusu, take good care of them." Ying Zheng instructed his eldest son who was accompanying him.
Fusu promised: "I will not let my father down."
"Yangzi, fulfill your duties and take good care of the immortal."
Princess Yangzi responded respectfully.
The entourage received the order and withdrew, standing beside the carriage waiting.
Ying Zheng personally poured wine to bid farewell to Wei Shengxue.
"I cannot see this magnificent landscape with my own eyes, so I ask you to read it for me."
Wei Shengxue raised her wine glass and said, "When your cultivation increases, you'll be able to travel thousands of miles in an instant, and mountains and rivers stretching for countless miles will all be at your feet. But today, I accept your words. I will observe the changes over the past few days on your behalf."
She took out a piece of jade as clear as crystal and handed it to him. "This is a teleportation stone. It can transport small objects without spiritual power. When the time comes, let Master Fusu paint the scene he sees and send it to you. That way, you can be considered to have seen it with us."
Ying Zheng's expression softened as he glanced towards Fusu. "Only these little tricks are learned quickly."
Wei Shengxue smiled and said nothing.
According to her experience, when a father or mother dislikes and belittles his or her child, don't agree with him or her in the end, otherwise you will definitely not get approval, but angry sarcasm and a change of face.
Wei Shengxue waited for him to finish, then drank the wine in the cup. "Today's departure is for our future reunion. We will definitely return before the first snowflake of winter falls."
"I will protect your children. Um... their lives will be safe."
She waved and turned, "Goodbye."
Ying Zheng raised his hand and waved, imitating her gesture: "Goodbye."
Wei Shengxue stepped onto the carriage, and the people waiting on the side bowed to Changting and said goodbye, then also got on the carriage.
The convoy of only a dozen people set off.
Travelers: Weishengxue, Princess Yangzi, Prince Fusu, relative number one Wang Li, relative number two Meng Nan, and six or seven guards and grooms.
In this era, setting out with such a small number of people is simply shouting to the bandits: I am easy to bully, come and rob me!
Although Weishengxue was there, no one could cause any harm to the convoy, but it was better to have less trouble than more. Even if there was no loss, being constantly disturbed would ruin the good mood of sightseeing.
So after they walked out of the Xianyang Pass, they were greeted by a caravan that had been waiting there long ago.
"Teacher Weisheng!"
A teenage girl jumped out of the caravan and ran towards them, jumping and running.
"I was so excited to hear that you were going on the road together that I couldn't sleep well for two nights in a row."
"But it's a relief that you guys wanted to come along, otherwise it wouldn't have been easy to convince my family to let me go out. As soon as I heard the news that I was going to go with Teacher Weisheng, my grandfather immediately changed sides and even helped me scold my father for being inflexible." She chattered as soon as she stood still, gesticulating with joy, her excitement evident in her words, "You didn't see it, his face was just like the chameleon we saw in class, hahahaha"
Fusu took care of the dealings himself, and Weishengxue stayed in the car listening to Shaolan excitedly sharing her recent developments of the past few months.
"...Zhonglan and Jiangzhi are working on basic education, but for now they can only recruit slaves and daughters from Qianshou families. We have to regularly send them some rice, grain, and cloth before they'll let them go." Shaolan wrinkled her nose and cursed softly, "How greedy and short-sighted they are."
Reading and learning to read are such great opportunities.
You know, in today's Qin Dynasty, as long as you can read and be familiar with Qin laws, you can become a minor official.
Shao Lan thought with disdain: The opportunity was delivered to my door, but I pushed it away. No wonder I can only be the lowest person.
But she didn't say this out loud, and didn't even show it on her face. She knew that the immortal didn't like this attitude.
"I heard that the new academy has also started to implement this teaching method. It is said that the speed of recognizing words has increased a lot." Of course, we also have to thank the immortal Neng for providing the basic teaching materials.
Combined with pinyin, it is a great tool for beginners. Recognizing characters and reading sentences, which originally took several years to learn, can now be mostly learned in just a few months. The first batch of students can already read and write commonly used characters smoothly.
After a few months of training, they will be assigned to various departments to help out. If all goes well, they will be assigned to various counties to fill vacancies by the end of this year.
These were of course what Princess Yangzi wanted to know.
If she had asked in the past, she would have been given excuses or given some unimportant information as an excuse, but now, as the chief steward of the Changsheng Palace and a close minister to the immortal, she has enough capital to understand the relevant government affairs. She cannot directly participate in the government affairs, but she is more than capable of finding out this information.
"That's a good thing."
Wei Shengxue recalled the incident he mentioned casually when applying to build a textile factory.
"I didn't expect that we've already achieved some results. It's actually faster than the textile factory."
When she went out to check, she found that the factory building had not been completed yet and the hydraulic machines were still being debugged. It would take another month or so before the official start of production.
The carriage moved forward slowly. The cement road was so smooth that even the newly-brought-out glass did not need magnets at the bottom to stabilize it.
"Oh, you can even make glass cups?"
Wei Shengxue looked at the glass tea set on the small table with surprise. She picked up one and looked at it carefully.
"The clarity is a little off, but the progress is rapid. When will we be able to make glass windows?"
"We'll have to wait a little longer for the glass windows," Princess Yangzi recalled the glass factory manager's reply. "Large pieces of glass will have bubbles and be uneven, and colorless, transparent glass hasn't been fired yet."
"Use fragments of colored glass to piece it together?" Wei Shengxue thought of the artifacts unearthed from the archaeological excavations on the mother planet. Some buildings used small pieces of colored glass to make windows. They were magnificent, and paired with the tall and magnificent buildings, they had a shocking beauty.
Shao Lan's eyes lit up, and several money-making ideas instantly popped up in her mind. She said repeatedly, "Great idea! Great idea! As long as it's glued well, not even water will leak through. It can be used to make a glass carriage roof, a broken glass water cup, or it can be polished and inlaid into gold and silver jewelry."
Each one is a profitable business.
Wei Shengxue listened to her idea and couldn't help but praise her: "Shao Lan, you are really a talent in business! Work hard and strive to become the richest man in Daqin in the future!"
Upon hearing this, Shao Lan subconsciously looked at Princess Yangzi, then immediately suppressed all her emotions and said with a smile, "Then I'll take advantage of your good words, Teacher. Make a lot of money and pay a lot of taxes to the national treasury."
"By the way, our caravan is bringing a lot of sweaters to sell in other counties. We'll be passing a spring ploughing festival on the way. Would you like to join in the fun, Immortal and Princess?"
"Spring Ploughing Festival?"
Seeing that she was interested, Shaolan immediately poured out everything he knew.
Wei Shengxue nodded. "It's a festival to pray for good weather and good harvests this year."
Princess Yangzi added, "Almost the same. However, as people gathered, some people brought tea and snacks to sell. Gradually, there were gatherings lasting two or three days."
"You have to hurry up to get out. Otherwise, in half a month, you can still catch up with the Spring Festival Ceremony presided over by the Emperor."
Wei Shengxue didn't feel sorry about this. No matter how grand the ceremony was, could it compare to the grand scene of bowing three times on Mount Tai that day, which caused the sky and the earth to change color?
That sudden change in the situation shocked her for eight hundred years!
Weishengxue lifted the curtain and looked out. They were now out of the jurisdiction of Xianyang City. There were no towns around, only endless fields.
It was the spring plowing season, and every few meters there was one or two farmers bending over to work in the fields.
This place is close to Xianyang and was the first place where iron farm tools were distributed.
They picked up hoes, turned over the weeds, picked them up and threw them aside, and buried those that would not compete for nutrients in the soil.
Wei Shengxue was puzzled as she watched, "Why didn't they use the curved plow?"
Princess Yangzi and Shaolan raised their similar confused faces: Ah?
Both of them were noble ladies. They didn't even have to pick a flower from the garden themselves. The things in the fields were really not something they would understand.
'Tong'er, what are they doing?'
[Turn the soil over.] The system scanned the area and came to this conclusion after comparing the data.
"Why don't they use better equipment? The production is already enough to cover this area."
[No one knows, no one understands.]
"Could it be that it was embezzled?" Wei Shengxue made a guess.
Princess Yangzi's expression changed.
Near Xianyang City, less than fifty miles away, someone is already pretending to obey orders while secretly disobeying and deceiving their superiors?!
"I'll ask someone." Shao Lan jumped off the carriage and ran to the caravan to inquire.
Many of the men in the caravan had traveled far and wide and used to make a living from the land, so they knew more about these things than them.
The carriage stopped, and the others also stopped. Fusu sent someone to ask.
Princess Yangzi didn't mention Wei Shengxue, but only spoke of herself: "I saw that no one in the fields was using the immortal plow, and I was suspicious, so I asked the young lady to go and ask."
Having doubts... can be suspicion or doubt, it all depends on the outcome.
The guard went back to report to Fusu.
Upon hearing this, Fusu got off the car and looked around. Sure enough, no one was using a curved plow around him, and there were not even many people driving oxen.
His face darkened.
He was not someone who didn't know about farming. As the eldest son of the Qin Dynasty, he might not have farmed himself, but he knew the farming season and necessary steps very well. Now was the time to till the soil.
He directly assigned the driver to go to the fields to inquire.
After a while, the driver came back with a farmer.
"Young Master," the driver changed his address in front of outsiders.
Even if they changed into ordinary clothes, anyone who could afford to use a horse-drawn carriage was considered a noble person to the common people whose ancestors had been working in the fields for generations.
He stood trembling by the roadside, not daring to even step on the edge of the official road.
"Sir, I know nothing. I haven't broken any law, and neither have my neighbors."
Fusu's questioning was not going well. The other party kept repeating himself without knowing anything and just kept repeating a few sentences.
The stalemate was not broken until Wei Shengxue came over.
"What's going on?" she asked.
Fusu shook his head and smiled bitterly: "It's spring plowing time, but there's no new plow. I called people over to ask for some information, but who knew..."
When the farmer saw another group of nobles coming, his body shook even more violently. If he hadn't held on, he might have fainted.
Wei Shengxue came over and chanted a few heart-clearing spells for him, forcing him into a state of pure mind and desirelessness, temporarily dispelling all emotions.
She glanced at Fusu and signaled him to ask quickly.
"No new plows?" the farmer wondered. "The agricultural officials didn't say there were any new plows available for rent."
He touched the hoe lovingly and said cheerfully, "This new farm tool is really useful. The agricultural officials are kind enough to let us rent it. If you pay a little more, you can even buy it outright, just like last year's sickle."
How could there not be!
Shaolan almost blurted out.
Even she knew that the ironworks outside Xianyang City did not stop production even during the Spring Festival, and did not stop for twelve hours. The agricultural tools it produced mainly included hoes, sickles, and iron plows, in order to promote them as quickly as possible.
Fusu's eyes were deep, and at first glance one seemed to see the shadow of Ying Zheng.
He said, "The convoy should speed up and reach the county town as soon as possible."
He wanted to see whether it was the agricultural officials below who were concealing the truth, or the county magistrate who was abusing his power to keep it for himself.
According to Qin law, those who delay spring plowing should be punished!
Wei Shengxue stretched out her hand and wiped away the farmers' memories of them.
If this matter is investigated, there is no guarantee that the desperate people will come after him.
A few more flashes of light popped up, and even the people in the surrounding fields had a blurred memory. They only remembered that an extremely luxurious convoy passed by.
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